3
Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. It was anyone's guess of the front three teams heading into Q3 of who would claim pole position but Lewis Hamilton set two great laps to put his car at the top of the grid.
it was a close battle between the three cars, with less than two tenths separating first placed Hamilton and third placed Vettel, with Bottas sandwiched in between the two, but the championship leader did enough to claim his second pole position of the season.
Many had expected the Red Bull's of Verstappen and Ricciardo to be able to challenge for Pole position but could only manage fifth and sixth respectively, with the decision to go onto the soft tyres for their final run in Q3 proving to be the wrong decision for the team.
Behind the front free teams it was Magnussen who won the midfield battle on this occasion, just edging out teammate Romain Grosjean, the Renault of Carlos Sainz and the Mclaren of Fernando Alonso, who all contested a tight Q3 battle to be the best of the rest, with that group of four being split by less than two tenths and should provide an intriguing battle for points tomorrow.
It was an especially good session for both home hero's Sainz and Alonso, with Alonso managing to get his car into Q3 for the first time this season in an admirable seventh place and Sainz managing to outqualify teammate Nico Hulkenberg for the first time this season, who was shockingly out in the first qualifying session after hitting gearbox issues.
Failing to get into the third Qualifying session were both Force India's who failed to really build on the positive pace they had in Baku and look unlikely to really challenge the likes of the Haas or McLaren cars for the points, although could have a strategy advantage starting on new soft tyres.
It was yet another qualifying session to forget though for Williams who will only start ahead of Brendon Hartley tomorrow due to his crash in the morning's practice session, and would have otherwise locked out the back row of the grid, showing the dire state of affairs their car is in currently.
Sam Gale
Circuit de Catalunya - 12 May 2018
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Replies (3)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I guess I shouldnt be surprised. This is Mercedes *ing Benz Son we are talking about after all. But I hope this isnt representative of how the race will be, the raw speed difference between Merc' and the rest was worrying indeed. I hope Ferrari and Red Bull wont cannibalize each other on this, and focus on getting Merc' pinned. Im disappointed by STR though. P12 isnt necessarily bad, Spain can be a bit chaotic and they can benefit from that, but had higher hopes than that. And Williams just look so limp... Haas looks strong. Was expecting McLaren to beat them on this, and they might tomorrow, seeing as how the Haas cars disintegrate midrace, but Haas did look much faster.
Kean
Posts: 692
I think Vettel can give Mercedes a run for their money, he came pretty close in quali. Overall there were quite a few drivers that impressed during fp1-3 and quali. Ham, Bot, Vet were all impressive. Also the Haas cars, K-Mag in particular, along with Alonso and Sainz. Further down the grid I think the most impressive drivers are Gasly and Leclerc, they are really taking Hartley and Ericsson to school (Hartley were consistently behind during practice). I'm afraid that Ericsson will continue to be outperformed (big time) by Leclerc the rest of the season. And lastly Williams, that package just seems awful.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I really hope thats the case. And yeah it looks like Leclerc has gotten all warmed up. I sorta expected him to start outpacing Ericsson, but nothing is sure nowadays, seeing as how the jump up to F1 seems longer than ever. But this looks set to be another interesting race.